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Appreciation post: switched my whole trim approach after watching a Amish farrier in Bird in Hand, PA
For 5 years I was a nippers and rasp guy. Quick trim, nippers bite off the wall, rasp smooth, done in 25 minutes. I thought that was the right way. Then in April I spent a day at a barn near Bird in Hand, PA watching an Amish farrier work on a foundered mare. He never touched a nipper to that foot. Just a rasp and a hoof knife, 45 minutes on one foot. Three weeks later the mare's sole was level and her toe was back where it should be. I started slow trimming my own horses the next month. Same rasp, same knife, just more patience. My gelding's white line stopped stretching after about 6 weeks. So now I want to know, do any of you trim the whole foot with just a rasp on tough cases? Or is nippers still your main tool?
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hannahj491mo ago
Rasp-only really shines when you stop trying to fix the whole foot in one sitting. That Amish farrier took 45 minutes because he was reading the foot the whole time, not because he was slow. With a rasp you can back off a quarter inch, check the sole, walk the horse, come back with a fresh eye. Try nippers on a foundered foot and one wrong bite takes off wall you can never put back. I did a rescue pony last winter, four trims spread over ten weeks with just a rasp and knife, and her toe came back with zero flare. Nippers still have a place for heavy dead sole or a hoof that grew crazy fast, but on anything sore or tricky the rasp is the safer bet.
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